HAND 



be so well broke, and so well ridden, as to change 

 its leg, if asked to do so, at every stride. " With 

 woven paces," if not "with waving arms," I have 

 seen rider and horse threading in and out the 

 trees that bisect Rotten Row, without missing 

 one, for half a mile on end ; the animal leading 

 with near or off leg, as it inclined to left or right, 

 guided only by the inflection of the rider's body, 

 and the touch, too light to be called a pressure, 

 of his knee and leg. How seldom does one see 

 ahorse ridden properly round a corner ! He is 

 usually allowed to turn on his shoulders, with his 

 hind legs too far back to be of the slightest 

 assistance if he slips or stumbles, and should the 

 foothold be greasy, as may happen in London 

 streets, down he comes flat on his side. Even at 

 a walk, or slow trot, he should be collected, and 

 his outer flank pressed inwards by his rider's heel, 

 so that the motive-power in hocks and thighs is 

 kept under his own body, and the weight on his 

 back. In the canter it stands to reason that he 

 should lead with the inner leg, otherwise it is 

 very possible he may cross the other over it, and 

 fall like a lump of lead. 



I remember seeing the famous Lord Anglesey 

 ride his hack at that pace nineteen times out of 

 Piccadilly into Albemarle Street, before it turned 

 the corner exactly to his mind. The handsome 

 old warrior, who looked no less distinguished than 



85 



